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Hungarian Officials Can Now Censor the Media
An anonymous reader writes "Hungary is set to regulate the media, including web-published content, under a new law applicable today. The law requires all the media to provide a 'balanced view' and must not go against 'public morality,' and places all publications under the control of a new regulating body, whose top members have all been nominated by Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Orban, whose strong ways have been compared to Putin's, has been tightening his grip over Hungary. 'In the seven months since Orban came to power with a two-thirds parliamentary majority, he has implemented retroactive taxes in violation of the constitution, curbed the Constitutional Court's power, effectively nationalized private pension funds and put ruling-party allies in charge of at least four independent institutions, including the audit office.' Citizens sentenced in application of the new law can still challenge it at the European Court of Human Rights — see you in a few years."
You control the people...
Has the industrialized world reached Peak Freedom?
It seems like a lot of countries are going on a slide towards dictatorships and totalitarianism, and if it doesn't stop, I'm pretty sure we're going to see World War III, and I'm willing to bet it's within the next 50 years. The problem with WWIII is going to be, it's not going to be countries banding together to stop aggression from another bloc of countries, but fighting for the right to rule over other countries. Russia, USA, UK, Italy, Hungary, China, and North Korea are the ones off the top of my head sliding that way, though there's a bunch of other countries who might give them a run for their money (Iran et al).
Canada: The US's more awesome sibling.
Yes, for sure, government officials are much more likely to know what a balanced view is than us the common people. Thank God those poor Hungarians don't need to evaluate among different options at the newsstand, the Government has done that for them.
However, I pity those poor government censors who must look through all that pornography in order to censor it. Their brains will be fried in no time, as happens to everyone who sees pornographic text or images.
When libertarians and left wing parties earned the "power", they kind of decieved the populace and we ended up with the extremist right wings getting more influence again.
I imagine that, as this continues, it will inevitably cause a new libertarian explosion and we will inevitably end up with much more lax and young gouvernments...... Yes am dreaming.
lets see Germany sliding back to old ways, Hungary becoming like it once was....Italy being run buy a dictator with mob connections.....the popes a nazi lover.... did we win WW2? OR just delay the brain dead take over
...I'd say the new media law is deeply disturbing and it's certainly a step away from democracy, however comparing Hungary to Russia, Belarus or Venezuela does a disservice to describe the state of opression in those countries.
/. article about Hungary, I don't think that happened many times before. It is warranted as Hungary now holds the rotating EU presidency for the next 6 months and also this has been the worst degradation of democratic freedoms in the country since the fall of the communist run dictatorship that ended in 1990.
There is one thing that the election in 2010 taught me: if someone campaigns on vague promises and commits to nothing, then assume the worst of intentions and do not, under any circumstances give the party seeking a large majority a carte blanche.
It's a weird feeling to see a
Overall, I think this media law and the government itself will fall, on the medium term (~4 years). This new law and the governing party is already a subject of widespread mockery and nothing corrodes support for a party more than being subject of ridicule. Hungary regained press freedom not long enough ago to have forgotten how precious it is. The governemnt doesn't understand the internet or the state of media.
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say
I'm a Hungarian. I don't really care for politics, I didn't vote, and I only read about these kind of things on news sites. I'm not on the left, right, my philosophy is live and let live.
This new law is just another item on an already lengthy list of reasons to get a job and settle down in a (hopefully) slightly more civilised western country.
I'm not trying to compare our situation to the Nazi Germany, but we are heading down a path that doesn't seem too bright. Fascists, nationalists, extremists call themselves politicians, spread hate under the guise of free speech, and people cheer them for doing so. The other party (socialists) stole money, but didn't try to establish a dictatorship. And I can't believe I actually consider that a good thing now.
At least I didn't vote for any these assholes.
It should be a warning for all those that follow right-populist parties and their diffuse "promises". More work, fewer immigrants, less crime, eliminating abuse of social services... sounds familiar?
Also familiar that they do not tell you just how they want to do it?
When facing a politician and his promises, why (usually the single important question) is not really going to give you insight whether the emperor has pants. How is the question you should ask. If he has no answer, write the windbag off.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Strength through purity. Purity through faith!
"he has implemented retroactive taxes in violation of the constitution, curbed the Constitutional Court's power, effectively nationalized private pension funds and put ruling-party allies in charge of at least four independent institutions..."
It's easy for people to be nice and polite and generous in times of peace and plenty, but during these evil times we're living in, it seems you find out what people are really like.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Media must present a balanced view and uphold public morality? May as well just pull the plug on the whole internet.
"Mood Pictures" is in Hungary and takes democratic speech a few strokes too far. Good for hungary if they realize you can't open up the "freedoms" without a moral base in society like they have in USA. Putin did that for Russia; in the 1990's freedom meant hardcore porn on primetime TV...
What happened to the world? Didn't every country in the "Western World" praise democracy and freedom of speech as the ultimate goal of the government until now? And now these idiots collectively decided that these can't give them enough power and changed their minds. China has long been famous for being a police state, but now the US of A have started moving - no, racing - in that direction. PATRIOT Act? TSA? WikiLeaks?
I wonder that the majority of the world has let them act like this until now. I honestly expected people would see their mistakes when WikiLeaks started publishing all those documents, but the ones in power have proven to be capable of preventing that. I don't know how this will go on, but I'm pretty sure some people will be really screwed in the end. I hope it's not us.
I'm pretty sure in the next few years or decades, things are going to change very quickly. History is repeating itself for the nth time. How long will that continue?
Too bad you don't respond to Anons.
One of us could explain it to you.
Before you scoff at the Anon label think for a moment that there are only seven people here who both change the title field and put two dashes beside the name.
--Anon
This is the backlash of eternal growth promise that we cannot fulfill any longer.
They built row houses in Hungary, and they sit empty. The same happened in Ireland. But where did they learn to throw money away on bogus promises? Remember the Dust Bowl land rush? There were fake pictures advertised in England about a hundred years ago showing a Texas Panhandle paradise with artesian fountains in lush cities; as a result, folks flooded a desert that couldn't sustain them. A couple of folks were convicted of con artistry or something like that, but no one noticed.
And no one learned the lesson, in the least the brilliant minds of the Chicago school of Economics. "We shall will the Colorado plateau sand into arable land; we shall will the soggy Irish skies into a tropical island; we shall will the Hungarian puszta to look like the Tetons." Yeap, we invented it and still sell it, so don't bother explain why people backlash and seek safety away from our superb lifestyle.
Peak Freedom in the USA was the 1920s. The Depression, Roosevelt, Court Packing, the New Deal and The Fed (the prior decade) began the process.
if I may ask, in which other countries has there recently been proposed a new law for media censorship or something similar and in which countries is some sort of media censorship already being practiced ? i know that In south africa there was a proposed bill very recently.
I know this sounds outrageous but you have to go to an Eastern European country to see the amount of shit that satura the media.
Our first Hungarian republic was crushed after several months, the second one lasted for almost four years, this third one endured a bit more than two decades. I clearly see a positive trend here.
There's a good reason to not respond to Anons: it helps stigmatize the use of anonymous posting for legitimate comments. Most anonymous comments are just trolls and flamebait.
Unfortunately, having a firm policy of not responding to Anons isn't good either, because there's many valid reasons for posting Anon with certain posts/topics, such as when saying something about your employer and being worried about being identified, saying something about a crime you've committed, or something along those lines.
Most of the time, however, posting Anon is just a way for trolls to annoy people without repercussions.
Most non-anonymous comments are just trolls and flamebait, too.
That's why the name of the submitter is irrelevant. It doesn't matter if it's "Anonymous Coward" or "Grishnakh" or "jcr". The only thing that matters is the message. It's foolish to consider anything besides the message itself.
Seriously folks, no-one is looking at the free US Media and saying "That is the model to which we should all aspire". Would I rather have a democratic government or Rupert Murdoch controlling the media - well, I'd rather have neither - but at least I can vote out a democratic government.
Fox News or The BBC - no fucking contest....
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
Sorry, but when 75% of Anon messages are trolls and flamebait, and 25% of non-anon messages are, it makes sense to ignore the Anon postings so you don't have to wade through as much shit to read legitimate posts.
When there's a real name attached to the message, it becomes easy to identify posters who have a habit of posting flames and trolls, and then you can individually filter those people out in your Preferences. I have a small list of people whose messages I never read; they're called "Foes" on Slashdot. There's no way to filter out the troublemakers when they post Anon, so it's tempting to just ignore all Anon posts.
please support an international blackout in protest against these undemocratic measures: http://blackout4hungary.net/ also follow #blackout4hu
There goes Gizmodo and the rest of Gawker Media. They're set-up as a whole bunch of Hungarian companies, wrapped up in a Cayman Islands tax dodge.
Slashdot considers it the pinnacle of good and userfriendliness to be able to ignore anything posted by certain users, but considers it the depth of evil and corruption for someone to choose never to see a news broadcast or search result made by someone they disagree with politically.
It is the pinnacle of good that people who protest are able to have their voices heard and employ various means to do so, but the pinnacle of chaos and tragedy if Anons were able to inject themselves and FORCE people to read their comments.
Insanity? Probably a little bit, or just stupidity.
EASTERN Europe was always fucked. Let's not confuse it with the more advanced regions. It wasn't long ago that Hungary was ruled by Emperor Franz Joseph.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
but considers it the depth of evil and corruption for someone to choose never to see a news broadcast or search result made by someone they disagree with politically.
What the fuck are you insanely ranting about? I've never seen anyone except you criticize someone for choosing not to watch a news broadcast they don't agree with. In fact, criticizing Fox/Faux News is commonplace here.
No freedom-minded person would ever want to force someone to watch/read something they don't want to.
There have been a number of discussions where the almost total consensus has been that such a search function or news report filter would be a terrible development. Maybe you're new here.
>It wasn't long ago that Hungary was ruled by Emperor Franz Joseph. Exactly the same amount of time that Austria was ruled by the emperor Franz Joseph. Because, you know, it used to be Austria-Hungary in 1900. I'd hardly call Austria "Eastern European". Then again, I hate the use of "Eastern European" as a blanket term because there are vast, *vast* differences in living standards between, for example, Slovenia and Belarus. Unfortunately, the stereotype seems to favour Belarus.
The problem with the media having no sort of government control on what they can publish is that they're controlled by another set of rules which is almost as bad as government propaganda. Those rules are the ones set by their own company aimed to drive as much profit into the business as possible.
The problem with that is, the stories which create the highest profit are the ones which are most sensational. And to write that kind of story you need bias and you need to only show one side of the story which usually leaves one side looking like evil monsters when really there is another side where their behaviour was justified in the circumstances.
If the government could create a law which causes media to provide a balanced view, as long as they're not prevented from publishing the truth or things which would embarrass the government then this would be a good thing.
The new Hungarian law on the media aims at reaching a balanced publication pattern. Ideally such information flow would arise from the freedom of the press, the multitude of views being published in all sorts of media. Also, bad quality would be punished by market forces driving low quality publications bankrupt. Unfortunately the exact opposite happened over the past decades. Bad quality (bad as partial, aesthetically disgusting, junk etc) has been consistently maintained by hordes of media people being paid by left wing politicians and business people. Unfortunately, after a while the sense of taste gets blunted and new generations of people grow up taking in whatever the media cooks for them in a "normal" process. We have seen how this works during communism. The few rebels have been marginalized effectively. What can be done in such a situation? Wait 20 years for new generations and the dung to be cleaned from the media? The government wants something quicker and more effective. They took all the media las in the EU and some scissors and cut and pasted a new law that enforces in various ways balanced publication of information as well as quotas for qualty items to be published. "Balance" and aesthetics are definitely subjective terms but for now the media has to take its bitter medicine until we see some improvement. There is no point lower than where we start from.
I think that everyone should take voting seriously. It is our way of expressing our opinion and in the end it decides many aspects of your life. Not voting kind of takes the right to complain later.
I do understand that you might hate all parties and decide not to vote as a way of complaining. But in such situations, an empty envelope (blank vote) would be a better way to protest. Not voting can be seen as lazy rather and the message lost and statistics do mix both to their will.
Don't know... I'm coming from a country where we had many years of dictatorship and now that we have democracy, I see voting as a luxury that we must fight for. It can be gone one day and you'll miss it, so don't take it for granted.
Hungary has great experience with censorship. First trained by the Nazis in goose stepping and book burnings they then got similar training from Joe Stalin's friends who moved right in to help them suppress freedom. Is this some sort of divine justice about to strike again?
"To: jintao@blog.hu.com / Subject: Freedom of speech in Hungary as of 21st December 2010 / Dear Mr Hu Jintao, [...]": http://amexrap.org/fal/dear-mr-hu-jintao
Please help us: http://blackout4hungary.net/en/ Thank you!
remember Gaff from Blade Runner? Addresing Deckart he says that word.
It is one of the most common Hungarian bad words - means "horse dick" The full insult is "Lófasz a seggedbe" - a horse dick in your a@@
So, Lófasz a seggedbe minister! (I am 25% Hungarian, so I have the right to curse him)
I haven't seen every comment, so I've no idea whether anyone has linked the actual act already, but here you go in English